This paper concerns the meaning and use of complex linguistic skills in social life, including in the professional sphere. After an introduction based on theories of language as ‘capital’ and data about Poles’ current language skills, the author presents her own research. The object of the study was to examine the social value of multilingualism in contemporary Poland by comparing the views of students, employers, and language-service providers. The research involved questionnaires, expert interviews, and qualitative and quantitative analysis of employment advertisements. On the basis of the results, it can be stated that the value of multilingualism is variously interpreted depending on the appraising entity. Poland is not, at least at present, a market for homo poliglottus, as multilingualism would appear to be underappreciated.

The main purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of maternal and paternal languages on the development of a bilingual child’s language. It is assumed that a mother’s language has the greatest influence on a child’s language. In addition, maternal language is responsible for the largest part of the variety in the language children understand and use as well as the development of bilingualism. We also believe that fathers influence the language of a home and mothers influence the language of a child. In our analysis, the focus is on the quantity and quality of exposure to the given languages, the pattern of language used by parents, the language of formal instruction and the style of parentchild interaction. Over one hundred and fifty case studies were under examination depicting various language constellations, such as e.g. Polish and English, Polish and Russian, Polish and German, Polish and Ukrainian, Polish and Belarusian, Polish and Italian. Hence, with this paper we hope to be able to better understand cross-linguistic influence on bilingual speakers.

This paper investigates the phenomenon of language transfer at the initial state of third language acquisition by adult Polish learners of English (L2) and German (L3). First, the controversy between two conflicting theories of language acquisition, behaviorism and nativism, is discussed with regard to cross-linguistic interactions. Second, some influential models of third language acquisition are presented. The participants’ written production data from 122 essays was analyzed and interpreted in terms of language transfer. Evidence for both L1 and L2 transfer could be found. The results show, however, that the influence of L2 is more robust and primarily affects the lexicon. Finally, the present paper emphasizes the fact that language transfer should not be perceived as a source of errors, but rather as an inevitable result of the third language acquisition process.